On the vegetable front the past few weeks have been mostly about peas and beans. Not only have I been sowing mangetout, ‘Sweet Horizon’, a maincrop pea, ‘Hurst Greenshaft’ and broad beans, ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’ but we’ve been feasting on peas shoots for a while now. I absolutely love broad beans but it wasn’t always that way. My memory of broad beans was those dreadful grey, dry, woolly things I was fed in the eighties. *shudders* The broad beans we eat now bear no resemblance, pick them when young and double pod them and the vivid green captures early summer on the plot. It’s difficult to buy organic broad beans, and even non-organic are sooooo expensive. For me, they are a must on our plot.

Until last year I had never thought it was worth growing my own peas. Frozen peas are nutritious and easy to come by. I did grow some sugar snaps though, and occasionally some of them swelled so much that we needed to discard the outer casing and eat the peas inside. Eaten straight away, and raw in salads they were so incredibly sweet and tasty. So, last year actual peas were introduced to the plot and despite the weather were a real success. Both sets of peas and the broad beans are all planted out now.

Making a bid for freedom – my forced rhubarb

Everything is crazily busy at the moment, hence my absence from blogging for a while. I’m either at the computer writing or in the greenhouse. My apologies if comments don’t go up for a while and I don’t get back to you or I don’t make it over to your blog. I still read all your comments and really appreciate you popping by. I would really love it if there were a few extra hours in each day. I did, however manage to get out for a bit of a walk on Saturday. Pentwyn Farm near Monmouth is an idyllic spot even if the cold wind had returned. It’s an area of unimproved grassland owned by Gwent Wildlife Trust. A habitat that’s quite rare now, the fields are managed to protect the wide variety of wild flowers that grow there. We tend to come up here in early summer to see the orchids. It was strange to wander around through the fields in late April and there be so little to see. If you didn’t know what was hiding away in the soil waiting to appear you’d be forgiven for wondering why Pentwyn Farm is so important. This was the first time we’d used the new nature trail the wildlife trust have created. It took us down the valley and out past a field of Hebridean sheep which are being used to manage the grassland. There was also the slightly disconcerting sight of a couple of alpacas. It’s not that unusual now to see alpacas in the British countryside, brought in to protect newborn lambs from foxes, or kept for their wool. I still find it funny to see them, a touch of the Andes in Wales.

Cowslips

It may be May in a few days time but the landscape feels like it is only very reluctantly emerging into spring. Trees are coming to life but it was hard to imagine the fields in a month or so’s time, covered in orchids, eyebright, and yellow rattle. Then, just as we were leaving, we came across a field of cowslips. It’s been a great year for primroses, the cooler conditions meaning their flowering season has been long but we hadn’t come across any cowslips until yesterday. Unlike its cousin the primrose, cowslips need more sunshine and an open site in order to thrive. Once an abundant plant it played a significant role in the celebration of spring’s arrival but intensive agriculture and spraying of herbicides lead to a dramatic decline in their numbers, along with so many of our wild flowers. My own garden is teeming with primroses but I have only one cowslip plant which my mum gave me last year. The first thing I did when we got back from the walk was to go and see if it was flowering yet. And there they were, a couple of stems with delicate yellow trumpet-like flowers.

Asparagus spears

To complete the spring theme we came across the first bundle of asparagus spears in a local deli. I was surprised to see them to be honest. I had thought the cold spring would have delayed the harvest but it appears not. It was impossible to resist them even if the price tag was a little steep. The season is so short that they are such a treat to have over the coming weeks. Herefordshire and Worcestershire are proud of their asparagus growing, there’s a festival to celebrate the green spears with food, music and even inflatable asparagus. When it comes to cooking asparagus I prefer simplicity. I do occasionally put it in quiches or frittatas, but steamed with a few shavings of parmesan or with goats cheese and parma ham are my favourites. When it comes to snapping off the woodier base of a spear, my asparagus tip (sorry, dreadful pun, I know) is don’t throw the ends away. If you make your own vegetable stock they make a great addition giving it a lovely sweet flavour. I put the ends in a freezer bag, collecting them over the course of the asparagus season and keep them in the freezer. When you’re making your stock just get a few out and put in the simmering water along with your other veg.

Sometimes beauty can be found in the simplest of things. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I know not everyone will agree that a field of dandelions is beautiful but the scene we came across the other evening took my breath away. We took a trip up to a local meadow. I know what you’re thinking, ‘haven’t you just written a post about how you suffer from hay fever and how you and meadows are not a good combination?’ Yes, you’re right but the weather has been so beautiful here with long, warm, balmy evenings that are such a rarity in this country. The last thing I want to do is sit indoors when I could be outside watching the sun set over the Monmouthshire hills.

A couple of miles outside the town of Monmouth is one of Gwent Wildlife Trust’s reserves. Pentwyn Farm was purchased by the Trust in the nineties and since then work has been done to make this a haven for wildlife. Based on a traditional, small farm with a cottage, 13th century barn, stone stiles and dry stone walling separating the fields, it is particularly important for its unimproved hay meadows.

Early Purple Orchid

From spring right through into summer the fields are full of beautiful wildflowers, creating a sight that is now rare in the countryside. No chemicals have been used on this land for over 20 years now and they are maintained using traditional methods. In 2009 a flock of Hebridean sheep was introduced to the site to graze the land, an important part of managing this sort of meadow, helping to control the stronger grasses and coarse shrubby growth that, given the opportunity, will out-compete the more delicate grasses and wildflowers. Grazing can also aid seed distribution and ultimately improve the diversity of the meadow, allowing many more species to flourish.

Bird’s foot trefoil

The other evening the fields were rich with meadow buttercups, red clover, ribwort plantain and bird’s foot trefoil. These meadows are particularly important for the species of orchids that now grow here. We managed to see some early purple orchids hidden amongst the grasses. Later in the year you can see ox-eye daisies, eye bright and numerous orchids, including the common twayblade, the green-winged and the common spotted.

Ribwort plantain

As you can imagine, a place like this is the perfect home for wildlife. We were there as the evening bird chorus was under way, birds singing as if their lungs would burst. One bird was so loud, it was incredible that the sound could come from such a tiny creature. The endangered dormouse has established itself amongst the hedgerows and trees feasting on hazelnuts and berries and barn owls swoop over the fields seeking out mice and voles.

Not content with the 40 acres of Pentwyn Farm, Gwent Wildlife recently purchased adjoining farmland of 104 acres. This land had been farmed for dairy production, with a monoculture of rye grass but the ambitious plan is to return it, too to species rich meadows; to plant trees and hedgerows and join up the smaller pockets of old grassland creating wildlife corridors, which are so important for creatures like the dormouse.

Field of dandelions

This land, known as Wyeswood Common, was the last field we walked through. Wellyman had gone off, saying he’d spotted some ox-eye daisies, they were, in fact, dandelions and a whole field of them, hundreds of them that had gone to seed. In the soft light of the sunset they glistened and their white seed-heads looked like halos. It was quite a spectacular sight, made even more special by the realisation, as we watched and the breeze carried away the seeds, that this moment would be fleeting.

Already there are signs that the Trust’s plans are working, with the semi-parasitic yellow rattle visible in amongst the grass. This plant gains some of its nutrients from the roots of other plants, in this case the strong grasses around it. By weakening these plants, yellow rattle allows other species to establish themselves and is one of the first steps towards bringing diversity back to agricultural land.

I may have paid for it with eyes that puffed up so much I thought I might not be able to see in the morning (I’ve since bought some eye-drops) but this is truly an idyllic place, I just need to remember the tissues next time.

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